Rogers technicians in Metro Van issue strike notice

The union representing nearly 300 former Shaw technicians who now work for Rogers across Metro Vancouver says workers could take job action on Monday.

This comes after the union didn’t respond to the company’s latest offer and issued a 72-hour strike notice on Friday.

The United Steelworkers, Local 1944 says it’s “extremely disappointed” and “frustrated” with Rogers, claiming the company is trying to replace full-time employees with contractors.

But Rogers denies that, saying it actually plans to hire more full-time employees and reduce the use of contractors.

“The large majority of the work is done by our employees and we’re not replacing technicians with contractors,” Rogers said in a statement. “Our offer includes language to grow the combined bargaining unit by 15 and backfill vacated roles with full-time employees, which would provide job security and further reduce the use of contractors.

“We also provided language in our offer to ensure contractors cannot perform any of the work being performed in case of any layoffs.”

Ahead of the potential job action, Rogers issued a lockout notice, saying it’s the only way to ensure continued service to customers.

Rogers is the parent company of CityNews.